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Sir Keir Starmer has said there is still “so much more” to do in his first new year message as prime minister after a difficult first six months in No 10.
The Labour leader said the work to change the UK had “begun” but added that he knew that for many people it was “hard to think about the future when you spend all of your time fighting to get through the week”.
“I know there is still so much more to do,” he added.
The traditional message comes just days after a shock new poll suggested that Sir Keir could lose his majority and nearly 200 of the seats he won in July’s landslide victory – including 67 to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
Labour has struggled with everything from a “freebies” scandal to a backlash over Rachel Reeves’s Budget since the party swept to power in July.
Pollsters and Labour insiders have called on Sir Keir to be seen to deliver for workers in 2025.
Labour faces its first big electoral test since the general election in just five months’ time, with thousands of councillors set to be elected in local elections in May. The council results will be seen as a key barometer for a party that just a few months ago looked as if it would be difficult to eject from Downing Street at the next election.
But this weekend’s poll, the first significant seat-by-seat analysis since July, suggested that Britain was on course for another hung parliament.
In her new year message, new Tory leader Kemi Badenoch warned that her party’s outlook could be “bumpy”. She said the Conservatives are going through a period of change and that “things may be bumpy along the way, but the party I now lead is going to do things differently”. She added: “Watch this space.”
The prime minister, meanwhile, said in his message that his government would “fight” to rebuild Britain and rediscover “the great nation that we are”.
Sir Keir has already pledged to build 1.5 million new homes over the next five years, cut waiting lists dramatically, and reduce immigration.
The UK is “a nation that gets things done. No matter how hard or tough the circumstances,” he said, adding that there would be time to reflect on that in the coming year with the 80th anniversaries of VE and VJ day.
However, he added that those Second World War victories “and indeed the peace and the prosperity that followed all rested on that same foundation we must rebuild today: the security of working people. That is the purpose of this government.”
Sir Keir also highlighted the changes his government had made since it took over.
“The minimum wage will be raised by a record amount. Wages are up more broadly. Returns of foreign-national criminals – up 20 per cent. Billions of pounds’ worth of new projects in clean British energy making our country more secure. And over £25bn invested in our NHS, starting to cut waiting lists in your local hospital,” he said.
But he added: “Now, I know there is still so much more to do. And that for many people it’s hard to think about the future when you spend all of your time fighting to get through the week.
“So I want to be clear. Until you can look forward and believe in the promise and the prosperity of Britain again, then this government will fight for you.”
Mr Farage delivered his new year message from Blenheim Palace, the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill. He pledged to “make Britain great again” – a deliberate echo of Donald Trump’s election slogan.
He also said that in 2025 his party would “campaign for us to look at history in a different way, for our kids to be proud of who we are as a nation”, as well as to cut the cost of living.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey used his message to call on Labour to “be much bolder” in order to deliver “real change” in 2025.
He also warned that instability and insecurity around the world had been “made worse” by Mr Trump’s re-election.
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